Are all commercially available paints in Australia lead free?

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QUESTION: Are all commercially available paints in Australia lead free? 30 Jul 2008 NSW, Australia

One simple question, are all commercially available paints in Australia lead free? Thanks‍

ANSWER: 02 Apr 2009

Dear Jerry,

Unfortunately not all commercially available paint in Australia are lead free as, despite all the Australian literature referring to pre-1970 homes as being the problem, it was only in 1997 that the allowable level of lead in residential paint in Australia went down to 0.1% which is still higher than the US 1978 standard of less than 0.06% lead. So, it is still allowable to have a certain amount of lead in paint.

Nevertheless there are products that have very low lead levels, because it is virtually impossible to obtain lead free raw material as lead is such a wide spread contaminant. You can always ask the manufacturer about the lead level before buying the product.

Thank you for that important question.

Regards,

Iman Hegazi, MBBS, MD. Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Volunteer